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Lexus unveils Hoverboard with demonstration video

The Lexus Hoverboard comes just in time for the fall of 2015 -- the setting of Back to the Future II, the film that introduced the hoverboard concept into popular culture.

By Ben Hooper
The Lexus Hoverboard runs atop water in a Barcelona skate park. Lexus International/YouTube video screenshot
The Lexus Hoverboard runs atop water in a Barcelona skate park. Lexus International/YouTube video screenshot

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BARCELONA, Spain, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Automaker Lexus unveiled its long-teased Hoverboard in a demonstration video shot at a special Barcelona skate park.

The video, posted to YouTube by Lexus International, features pro skateboarder Ross McGouran taking the Hoverboard for a spin around a Barcelona "hoverpark," a skate park with metal installed under wood painted to look like cement.

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A second video shared by Lexus details the science behind the board, showing how the steam emanating from the device comes from liquid nitrogen being used to cool internal superconductors to -321 degrees so they can magnetically push against the metal under the park, causing the board to hover.

"The Lexus Hoverboard represents true innovation and imagination, together pushing the boundaries of technology even further," Lexus said in the demonstration video's description.

The company said there are no current plans to make the Hoverboard commercially available.

The Lexus Hoverboard is not the first to make headlines in recent years -- a board called the Hendo was developed by Arx Pax in Los Gatos, Calif., and released a demo video starring famed skateboarder Tony Hawk late last year. The Hendo similarly uses magnets to function and needs a copper surface in order to "hover."

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A different sort of hoverboard, using a drone-like set of propellers to stay above ground, set a Guinness World Record in May of this year by traveling a distance of 904 feet and 2 inches over Quebec's Lake Ouarea.

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